1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to providing customized audio tours, and more particularly, to a method and portable electronic device providing customized audio tours.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tour guides have provided customized tours of famous places such as cities for centuries. Such tours were traditionally provided by a guide who led a group on foot and described landmarks such as buildings and monuments along the guided path.
More recently, vehicles such as buses provide audio narrative describing the landscape as the bus proceeds along a predetermined route of interest to the client tourist. However, such tours, in order to remain economically priced, are typically general interest tours and fail to represent the particular interests of the client. For example, a bus touring Washington D.C. may have a tourguide who explains the history of Union Station as the bus passes the building. The tourguide may also briefly describe the architectural style of the building and quote a statistic citing the number of passengers using the station for train travel on a given day. However, time limitations and the desire to provide information of interest only to the majority of clients severely limits the amount of specialized information that may be provided.
For example, on a particular bus tour of Washington D.C., there may be clients on board with in-depth knowledge of the history of the city. Such history-oriented clients may be particularly interested in highly detailed historical accounts. When reaching Union Station, the history-oriented clients may be interested in the names of the original financers of the building and the impact of World War II on the building's use. In contrast, the bus may also contain clients who are railroad buffs and who would prefer a detailed description of Union Station's use as a railroad station including information regarding railroads serving the station, the number of trains arriving per hour, etc. Finally, a third group of clients may be architecture students who desire information regarding the building itself such as the building materials used, the individual who designed the building and architectural influences. Many other groups of individuals may also be on board, each of whom may have one or more highly specialized interests and backgrounds that would motivate the individuals to select a customized tour over a generalized tour. None of the needs of such individuals are adequately met by a generalized tour that attempts to appeal to the common denominator.
At the same time, portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous. As their presence has increased, new uses have been conceived for the devices. For example, museums now offer tours in which wireless transmitters provide specialized content to a wireless receiver located within a predetermined area. Alternatively, museums may offer the specialized content as a downloadable audio file that may be played by a portable audio device such as an Ipod®. However, although the content is specialized, it is still not customized to the specialized interests of a particular client. Further, the user is limited in his ability to select and control the output of the tour to correspond to a particular geographic location.